MFS is a tech startup whose leadership team I was a member of & where I’m presently a shareholder
With its huge “unbanked” population, Africa has seen some of the most rapid adoption of mobile payment systems in the world. While few people have a bank or credit card—or a formal bank account—most people have a mobile phone, and in places like Kenya, 70% of people with phones also use them as a “mobile wallet” for making payments via SMS. Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) has fewer than 30 million bank cards in circulation, but more than 150 million mobile wallets, worth an estimated $90 billion. There are mobile money services in nearly every market, but most are confined to domestic transactions, with almost no interoperability between networks or across borders.
